2000
by Immac
Summary: Kate Beckett has just spent a year mourning and now needs to decide where her life is going. Richard Castle has been trying to get over his recent divorce and raise his daughter. The two meet in the year 2000 and everything is turned upside down. AU. Rated T for language and adult content.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** **Hi, I'm back with another Castle fanfiction. Thank you so much for putting up with the abrupt ends to my other fics, and I promise I'll do my best to update those when I get a chance. I'd also like to take a moment to say that _Castle_ is not mine, nor are any of its characters. _Harry Potter_ and _The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon_ both belong to their respective authors as well. - Immac**

* * *

**JANUARY 1, 2000**

Kate rolled over in her bed, a dull pain throbbing in her temple. She was having one of those mornings where she would be unwilling to get out of bed even if she didn't have a hangover. Her thick comforter covered her lower body, warming her, while the top half of her lie exposed to the chill of her apartment. She reminded herself to talk to the landlord about fixing her heat, but decided that could wait.

Her phone rang beside her as Kate started to snuggle deeper into the blankets. She cursed, then answered it with a bitter, "Hello?"

"Hey, Katie."

His voice was slurred. Drunk. Not even hung over, like she was. Full on drunk. Kate wasn't entirely sure if she wanted to scream at him, or cry, or just bury herself under a mountain of blankets and pillows until she ceased to exist.

"Hi, dad," she murmured. "Happy New Year."

"And a very happy New Year to you too," he chuckled drunkenly. "Katie, I want you to come over this afternoon. Can you come over this afternoon?"

"Sure thing, dad. I'll be there at 5. You have a good day, okay?"

"I love you, Kate."

She didn't say it back. She just hung up, flipping the phone shut and tossing it across the room. Morning sunlight was seeping through the blinds, but it didn't hurt her eyes the way it had before. Now she was beyond caring about whether she was comfortable or uncomfortable with loud noises and bright lights. She was just pissed.

Suddenly, the idea of staying in bed all day seemed cowardly. Kate wasn't a coward. She stood, her body recoiling to the feeling of the icy air on her bare legs. But the shock was over as soon as it started and she began to dress herself. Pulling on a pair of jeans and a red t-shirt, and sliding her feet into a pair of sneakers, Kate examined herself in the mirror. She'd had worse days. She could get through this. A fighter. She was a fighter.

She brushed the taste of cheap tequila out of her mouth, gargling double the mouthwash. No makeup today, she decided. She needed something to do, somewhere to go. Anything but staying still and focusing on how her dad promised he wouldn't drink last night.

Kate grabbed her coat and was out the door in an instant.

* * *

If she had though the chill of her apartment was bad, the chill of the world outside was ten times worse. New York was freezing, and even though it was crowded with strangers, that didn't make it any warmer. Kate pulled her coat tight around her chin and walked purposefully down the snowy streets. All these people, walking merrily through the street as if they hadn't a care in the world. Kate resented them, and she resented resenting them. It had been a long, hard year. She, of all people, should be happy for a new leaf. A fresh start. And yet, all she saw was another square on a calendar, another 12 months of dealing with her alcoholic father and her college choices that she didn't understand yet and people who just didn't get it.

Even to herself, Kate sounded angry and bitter.

There had been some positives in the past year, she reminded herself. The new Richard Castle novel had come out. She'd read and reread that book 16 times in February alone. Not that she had let anyone know that. And she'd been seeing a guy, albeit not consistently. Will was really understanding, though, and he'd been around when she wanted him to be around and away when she wanted him away. And there had been some nights where she and her college friends would go out and dress up like the characters from their favorite TV show. Those had been fun. A nice break from her harsh reality.

Kate hadn't even begun thinking about the next semester. She had been planning to go back to Stanford for the rest of the year, but the more she thought about it, the less she wanted to. It had been hard enough leaving New York the last time, and after her father's latest relapse, leaving him alone seemed like one of the dumbest things she could possibly do.

But at the same time, staying seemed really dumb too.

Kate sighed, pushing the thoughts from her mind. She needed to relax. She didn't need to worry herself so much. After all, it was (technically) a holiday. So, on a whim, she ducked into the next shop she saw and was delighted to find it was a bookstore.

* * *

"Daddy! Daddy! This one!" Alexis said, thrusting a book into her father's lap.

"_Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone_," Richard murmured, reading the title. "This one looks like a good one. Any other books you want?"

"Nope! I want this one!"

"Are you able to wait until we get home, or should we pop out a chapter while we're here?" Richard asked, putting the chapter book back into his daughter's hands.

"Hmm," Alexis said, putting her finger to her chin and contemplating. "Can we read a chapter here? Please?"

"Of course. You go find a comfy place for us to sit, and I'll get us some hot chocolate," he said with a smile. Alexis beamed and kissed him on the cheek before running off into the children's section. Richard watched his seven year old bounce off and silently thanked the gods of genetics for blessing that child with the love of reading.

Standing, he closed up his book (_The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon_, which had been a birthday present from Alexis last year, though he hadn't had the chance to read it until now) with a receipt marking the page. Walking up to the coffee stand in the bookstore, he stood behind a young woman.

"Whatever the strongest, blackest coffee you can make is, please," the woman said, putting a five dollar bill on the counter in front of her. The barista raised an eyebrow but took the money and gave her change.

"Can I get a name for that?"

"Kate," the woman said. Richard liked that name. Kate. It gave her an aura of innocence, which he always saw as a plus for anyone. She turned and sat down at a nearby table. Her phone rang, a generic ringtone, and he watched as if in a trance as she answered it.

"Sir?" the barista asked, and Richard turned, suddenly remembering that he was supposed to be buying hot chocolate for his daughter, not stalking a stranger.

"Sorry. May I get two small hot chocolates?" he asked. He handed the barista ten dollars. "It's for Rick. Keep the change." The barista grinned and Richard stepped aside, keeping an eye on the woman. Kate.

"Sorry, Maddie," she was saying in a pained voice into her cell phone. "I can't come over tonight. My dad… yes, again. No, I haven't decided what I'm doing as far as school… I'm sorry. You know I can't just switch right now. I'm already enrolled for next semester. I can't just drop everything to stay here… I know," she huffed. She seemed really upset. "I know, Maddie. Look, I can figure it out on my own. Okay? I'll talk to you later… Bye."

She flipped her phone shut and sighed, rubbing her temples. Richard couldn't help but notice how exhausted she looked. But, then again, a lot of college students looked like that after New Year's Eve. Her green eyes had dark bags under them and a hollow look to them, as if she were haunted by something, and her brown hair was in a messy pony tail, as if she hadn't bothered to do anything with it before stepping out of the house. Not that it detracted from her beauty. If anything, it made it rawer, like he was looking at a fresh geode instead of the cleaned and cut rocks one would see in a jewelry store.

He wanted to help her, somehow. If he'd had the chance to swoop in, he would have paid for her coffee. But she didn't look like the type of woman to want charity like that, even if he didn't mean for it to be charity. She was just so young, so lovely, that he wanted her to smile. Nobody should be as sad or troubled as Kate looked like she was. Nobody deserved that.

"Large coffee for Kate?" the barista called out. She looked up, tucking her phone in the pocket of her pea coat. She breezed past Richard, grabbed her coffee with a polite smile and a word of thanks before slipping around him and diving into the mystery section of the bookstore. He wanted so badly to follow her, to say hello and maybe give her the gift card for the store that he'd brought along (he had enough to pay for Alexis's book without needing to use it). But before he got a chance, the barista handed him two hot chocolates and he knew that if he kept his little girl waiting much longer, he'd never hear the end of it.

So, instead, Richard grabbed the drinks and headed back to the children's section, Kate still on his mind.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: As always, _Castle _is not mine. Neither are any of the books mentioned in this chapter, and there are a lot of them. - Immac**

* * *

**JANUARY 5, 2000**

Five days. That's how long it took Alexis to finish the first _Harry Potter_ book. He'd had to read multiple chapters to her a day, and she even spent a day trying to read some herself (even if it was with a bit of difficulty), but she'd finished it in record time. And Richard couldn't have been more proud. So, when she finished the book and discovered there were more in the series, it didn't take much persuasion to get him to take her back to the book store for more.

Also in five days, he had managed to all but stalk Kate from the book store coffee shop. He found an excuse to slip into that store at least once in each of those five days, just to see if she was there with her large, black coffee and flip phone. She wasn't. But he wanted to keep looking for her. It wasn't even for creepy reasons (he kept telling himself). Kate fascinated him. She had never said a single word to him, and he was unable to get her out of his mind.

Maybe it was the way she carried herself as if she were the only one who could save the world and that fact gave her a bit of confidence but also a sense of dread. Maybe it was how her voice had a melodic quality to it, but was worn down with so much pain, though she couldn't be much older than 20. Castle wasn't sure what it was about her, but she just… captivated him.

So he and Alexis took a walk to the book store.

"Daddy, are you okay?" she asked as they crossed the street. He lifted her tiny arm and she jumped onto the curb, giggling. "You've been _out-of-sorts_."

"Now what would give you that idea?" he asked, smiling at her terminology.

"Well, you didn't do voices for any of the characters in the book," Alexis pointed out. "Plus, you've been writing a lot. And you always like to look for a reason to not have to work."

That much had been true. He'd been writing, though it wasn't necessarily what he was supposed to be writing. But since he was regularly sleeping with his publisher, he figured he could get away with not finishing a few chapters immediately. All of his writings were about Kate, and her friend from the phone call, and her father. They had a complex story; one with heartbreak and laughter and a happy ending (even if he had to make that happy ending up himself). The only problem was that he had no clue what it was. All he had to go off of was Kate's body language and the fact that her father had a reoccurring problem.

In Richard's head, he was a gambler.

"I'm sorry. I've just had a lot on my plate with my book, sweetheart," he apologized. "I promise that with your next book, I'll read it in all the silly voices I can muster. I'll even do accents, if you'd like."

Alexis pondered this for a moment. "Okay!" she said with a grin.

* * *

"A book store? Really? I thought you were above books, Miss Let's-Buy-A-Motorcycle-And-Break-The-Law," Maddie said as Kate led her into the book store. Kate rolled her eyes.

"They were out of the book I've wanted to read, so they said they'd order it and I could pick it up today. We'll be in and out in, like, 5 minutes tops. You can go get coffee or something while I talk to the customer service guy," Kate said.

"Fine. But hurry. Our movie starts in an hour," Maddie said, making her way past the displays for new releases to the coffee stand.

Kate perused for a moment, looking at the glossy new hardbacks and yellowed-with-age used books. Both were beautiful to her, and if she weren't with her friend, she'd be tempted to just sit here and read all day like she did on New Year's. But they were pressed for time, and Kate had promised to go see some dumb chick flick with Maddie. After today, though, she wasn't quite sure when she'd have time. She needed to get off her ass and decide what she wanted to do with the upcoming semester, and what needed to happen to her dad if she decided to go back to California. Of course, then she'd have to worry about packing up her apartment and getting plane tickets and new books for classes.

The more she thought about her life, the less she wanted it.

She shook her head, clearing the thoughts from her mind, and approached the customer service kiosk as the little bell on the door jingled. Kate turned, momentarily distracted by the noise, and was suddenly attacked with the full force of a small child. Both parties collided with an _oof_, and the little girl recoiled, her knit cap knocked askew.

"Sorry!" the girl gasped, her eyes wide and face flushed so red that it nearly matched the fiery color of her hair. "I wasn't paying attention to where I was going. I didn't mean to hit you."

"You're fine," Kate said with a smile. "Must be some book if you're that eager to get in here."

The little girl smiled back, a bit more at ease, and nodded her head vigorously. "_Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets_," she said, pronouncing each word correctly as if she'd done it all her life. "Have you ever read it?"

"Nope, can't say that I have. Do you think I ought to?"

"Of course!" the girl said. "But it's the second one, so you need to read that one first. My daddy and I read it. It's really good." She turned and looked at a man behind her. "Daddy, she hasn't read _Harry Potter_!"

The man was enormous compared to his daughter, at least 6 feet tall. His hair was dark, a drastic difference from his daughter's red, but they had the same smile and the same sky blue eyes. He looked at Kate strangely, though, as if he recognized her. Kate recognized him immediately, but not because they'd ever met.

"You're… you're Richard Castle," she said in awe. "I love your books."

"Oh, thank you. I'm sorry about my daughter. She can be a bit clumsy… and talkative," he said with a smile and a ruffle of the girl's hair.

"Daddy!" she said in giggly protest. "I already apologized!"

"She was telling me how she was very excited about this next book. _Chamber of Secrets_, eh?" Kate asked, raising an eyebrow. _Oh my god_, she thought, _am I flirting with him?_

"Yes. She blazed through that first book. I liked it, too. You ever read them?" he asked, his eyes twinkling fondly, as if he were picking up her coy flirtations.

Kate shook her head. "I'm actually here for a mystery. They had to order it for me. Wasn't in stock. But I'd love to try the _Harry Potter_ books when I get a chance."

"Alexis, honey, why don't you go find your book and I'll get you a hot chocolate?" Richard Castle said to the little girl. She nodded and ran off without saying goodbye. Kate didn't mind.

"What book are you getting?" he asked.

"Oh, um, _Strangers on a Train_," she said, blushing, as if her choice of classic mysteries could make or break her relationship with a man she'd just met. Then again, it wasn't every day that you ran into your favorite author and were asked about literature, so maybe it kind of did matter.

"Nice choice. One of my favorites. I'm partial to _Murders in the Rue Morgue_. Edgar Allen Poe. Maybe after you finish your book and Alexis's book, you can try that one, too." He paused, staring at her. She couldn't shake the feeling that he knew her from somewhere, even if she had only seen his face on book jackets.

"Well, I won't keep you waiting. I bet your daughter is waiting on you."

"I bet she is," he chuckled. "Well, until next time, Miss…?"

"Kate. My name's Kate."

"It was nice meeting you," he said, shaking her hand, "Kate."

* * *

Kate may have arrived in the bookstore that day with the intent of buying only one book, but she certainly didn't leave with one. As she slid into the back of the taxi with Maddie, her backpack was weighed down with _Strangers on a Train_, _Murders in the Rue Morgue_, and _Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone._


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: So we're officially on a schedule. I'll be updating this fic every Saturday for the time being. Thank you for sticking around to read more, it really does make me super happy that so many people are following this now after only 2 chapters. Like always, _Castle_ and its characters don't belong to me. - Immac**

* * *

**JANUARY 6, 2000 **

Kate woke up early that morning. It was time to start packing up, get ready to go back to California. Even as she thought it, she felt an ache in her heart, like she was making the wrong choice. However, it was too late now. She'd already paid for her classes and even arranged her schedule. Her dad had managed without her just fine for most of the past year.

Okay, that was a lie.

As Kate hauled a bunch of cardboard boxes out of her closet, she thought back over the past year. Maybe if she had stayed instead of going to Stanford his alcoholism wouldn't have gotten as bad as it was. She knew she shouldn't be beating herself up over her father's dumb choices, but she had to admit she'd been a little selfish in the past few semesters. Staying in New York, knowing that whoever had stabbed her mother was still out there, had been too painful at the time. Staying with her dad, and seeing the dull lifelessness in his eyes every day, seemed near impossible. So, only two weeks after the funeral, Kate had fled the city for the sanctuary of a college on the other side of the country.

Only now was she seeing her life with startling clarity. She, Katherine Houghton Beckett, was motherless. She was now the daughter of an alcoholic. She was cripplingly unprepared for pushing forward in life, moving on.

The fact of the matter was that when Johanna Beckett died, Kate's love of life died with her. Kate went from being a social butterfly to a hollow shell of what she used to be. Her friends had all noticed, and she considered that a contributing factor to her only having three people she even talked to anymore.

Sure, her college buddies put on a good face and acted normal for her sake, but she knew they pitied her. They wanted her to move on. _It's what she would've wanted._

Kate blinked hard, scrunching up her face, willing the thoughts to leave her head. She didn't have time for the tears, the pain. She just wanted to get this over with.

Last time, it had been easier. When she approached her father about moving back to Stanford so soon after the funeral, he had been a bit concerned. Nevertheless, he still agreed to help her. And when she left again in the fall, he had been incredibly stoic about it, but still helpful. But when she had returned home last December for the holidays, things had changed. He was no longer joyous. It was obvious that Kate and Johanna's absences had crushed him. She had showed up at his house in the morning and found him passed out in the bathroom with several empty bottles of whiskey.

That's why she rented an apartment for the month. It was small and cold and lonely, but at least she didn't have to watch her dad constantly drink until the sobbing stopped. Only now she was on her own to move her stuff out. Kate sighed and flopped down on the floor by her bookshelf.

She looked at her shelves, searching for the ones that would return with her to college and the ones that would go into storage at her dad's or get sold to some second hand store. Kate reached out at one, smiling fondly at it. _A Calm Before the Storm_ by Richard Castle. Her father had given it to her as a going away present when she'd left a year ago. It was his latest book and she'd already read it 23 times. She had absolutely fallen in love with the story. Kate felt like her mother would've loved it, too.

That was the thing about the Beckett girls. They loved mysteries. Maybe it was Johanna's love of the legal system, and that love had being passed down to her daughter, but the two couldn't put the books down. They especially loved the ones by Richard Castle. _He's got such a way with words, Katie._ Johanna told her that every time she read a new one.

Kate smiled, thinking of how she had talked to him. He had approved of her reading choices, given her suggestions. Her mom would've loved that. Hell, she probably would've finished all three books in one day and give them back to Kate with a wink that said she'd love them too. And, in all honestly, Kate had read a good bit into each of them already. Something about her conversation with Mr. Castle had changed something. It made her feel a way she hadn't in a long time.

It made her feel happy.

* * *

Kate finished sorting all of her books within the hour. All the ones she wanted to keep or leave with her dad were piled up victoriously on top of her bed, and the rest were in the cardboard box to be donated. Glancing at her watch, she stood and closed the box up. She had time to run it by the local Goodwill and maybe even meet Will for lunch. Kate grabbed her phone and put in speed dial number 3 to call him as she left the apartment.

"Kate!" he said in greetings after letting the phone ring a few times. "Haven't heard from you in a while. What's up?"

"Just wondering if you'd like to grab lunch together. Are you free?" Kate asked with a smile.

"Sure thing. I'll meet you at Luigi's in an hour. That good?"

"Perfect." Kate said her farewells to him as she took the stairs down to the street, box in hand. She really did like having Will around, even if neither of them were exactly what you'd call "ready for commitment." But it was nice having someone for lunch dates and angry sex. Kate slipped her phone into her coat pocket and stepped into the cool outside air.

It was still absolutely frigid outside, and as she walked the snow crunched beneath her boots. She always liked that noise. The streets were bustling with people walking to the places they needed to be. Kate liked that too. Even when she felt absolutely alone, she still had the strangers around her to remind her that she wasn't.

Except strangers weren't exactly kind when you block their path.

Kate let out a sort of scream-slash-gasp as she slipped on a chunk of ice. Her box of books went up in the air as her body went down towards the ground, and it landed upside down on the ground beside her. The pedestrians grunted in anger as they had to recalculate their path so they didn't step on her or her cardboard box. Kate moaned softly, trying to shift her weight in a way that didn't hurt more. While she was fairly sure that her tailbone wasn't broken, she knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that it would be bruised like hell within a few hours.

"Here," a man's voice said. "Let me help you."


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Happy Saturday! A big thanks again to everyone who subscribes or comments. It really does make my day. As per the norm, _Castle_ is not mine. Neither are any of the books mentioned in this chapter. They're all property of their authors. - Immac**

* * *

**JANUARY 6, 2000**

Rick always hated taking Alexis back to school after breaks. It made the apartment feel so lonely, so quiet, he thought he would scream. So, instead of allowing himself to wallow in his own boredom, he decided to take to the streets for some good old fashioned people watching.

He loved observing people as they scurried about places like New York. It was when people thought they weren't being examined that their actions and emotions were most raw, and Rick was fascinated by that. Seeing actresses applying makeup as they made their way downtown, or businessmen stopping to take a breather before entering their companies; it was things like that that Rick lived for. It was a nice way to be reminded that even the greatest of humans were still just that. Human.

It honestly was by complete chance that he, for the third time in less than a week, ran into a certain college student with a taste for good literature.

Literature that she appeared to be throwing into the air as she slipped on ice.

Rick was up in a heartbeat, Superman instincts taking over. He swerved through the people, rolling his eyes at how they grumbled (as if she had fallen with the intent to make them late), until he got to her. He grabbed her box, shoving a few books back inside, and reached for her hand.

"Here, let me help you," he said. Kate took his hand and stood, brushing ice off of herself. When she looked up and met his eye, her own went wide.

"Mr. Castle!" she squeaked, her cheeks turning a lovely fire engine red. "I, uh, I slipped. I'm sorry, did I block your path?"

"No, not at all," he said with a smile. "Are you hurt?" He pulled her over towards the buildings, keeping her out of the pedestrian traffic. Kate shook her head. "That was some slip. You look freezing."

"I'm fine, really," she said with a slight smile. "But thank you for helping me."

"Would you like to go get coffee or something?" Rick asked, pointing at the coffee shop just across the street. "I'll pay."

"No, thank you," she said, her eyes bulging ever so slightly, as if she were astonished that he was offering this to her. "I've got places to be and things to do…"

"We can get to-go," Rick offered. "You really should relax for just a little. A fall like that, in weather like this?" He did a dramatic shudder, like he couldn't bear to think of what the poor girl must be going through (though he knew, in reality, she was just probably sore and irritated).

But Kate smiled a shy smile.

"Okay."

* * *

She was getting coffee. With Richard Castle. Like, actual coffee with the actual Richard Castle. Who was paying. For her coffee.

Kate nearly pinched herself, just to make sure this was all real. He led her into the coffee shop, holding the door open for her. She smiled softly to herself as the sweet warmth of the building enveloped her. God, she loved the smell of coffee.

She took a seat at one of the little tables, and Rick sat the box down in front of her.

"What would you like?" he asked.

"Surprise me."

As he walked up to the counter to place their orders Kate's eyes went wide. _Surprise me_? Where on earth had that come from? Richard Castle might be a gentleman for offering to do this, but she needed to remind herself that he was still basically a stranger. A very handsome stranger… with the most beautiful baby blue eyes she'd ever seen in her life…

As if on cue, her phone buzzed with an incoming text message from Will.

_Cant wai ;-)_

She smiled again.

"Someone special?" Rick asked, sitting down across from her. A blush took over Kate's features, and Rick chuckled. "It's a boy, isn't it?"

"Yeah," she said with a nervous chuckle. "My… boyfriend."

Her hesitation on the use of the word didn't slip past him unnoticed. Rick wondered fleetingly if she was using it as a subtle way to let him know that she was uninterested in him. Not that he was interested in her, of course, at least not romantically. But she was a pretty girl. It wouldn't surprise him if she was in a relationship.

"For you," he said, sliding a coffee cup towards her. It had _**Kate**_ scrawled on the side in sharpie, and she smiled at the fact that he had remembered her name. "Grande skim latte, two pumps of sugar free vanilla."

"Wow," she murmured, taking a deep whiff of the coffee's aroma. "That's awfully specific."

"You did say to surprise you," Rick shrugged, not bothering to tell her that that was Gina's usual coffee order. "Cheers." He held up his to-go cup and they tapped the Styrofoam as if they were champagne glasses. Kate giggled softly and took a sip, then immediately spat it out. "What's wrong?" Rick asked. "Did you not like it?"

"Hot," she said, fanning at her mouth. "Very… _very_ hot."

Rick smiled.

"So," she asked, setting her cup back on the table. "How's your daughter? Weren't you two reading that Harry Potter book?"

"Yes. She's very upset that we only read three chapters last night," he chuckled. The redhead had pouted all morning, complaining that she needed to know what happened next. To be honest, he was surprised Alexis hadn't burst into tears when he said she couldn't take it to school with her, seeing as she couldn't actually read much of it without assistance yet. "How about _Strangers on a Train_?"

"It's really good so far," Kate grinned, her eyes lighting up. "I think it might be one of my favorites."

"What _are_ your favorites?" he asked. "Like, your top 10 books of all time?"

"Of all time?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "That's pretty tough."

"Want me to go first, then?"

Kate nodded, raising both eyebrows and smirking coyly.

"Hmm," he said, squinting his eyes as if looking into the deep abyss of all literature ever. "In no particular order, of course-"

"Of course," Kate echoed.

"I'm going to have to say _Murders in the Rue Morgue_, _Frankenstein_, _Carrie_, _Good Omens_, _The Hounds of Baskerville_," he counted each one off on his fingers, "_Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone_, _Pride and Prejudice_, _Moby Dick_, _The Odyssey_, and _In A Hail of Bullets_."

Kate blinked.

"Did you just name one of your own books in your top ten favorite books of all time?" she asked incredulously. "That is the most conceited thing I've ever heard of in my entire life."

"Hey, I know good literature when I see it," Rick said with a smile and raise of his brown. Kate tried to hide her smile. "So, what about your list?"

"I really should be going," she said, standing up. "I have to meet my boyfriend for lunch. Maybe next time, Mr. Castle."

"There's gonna be a next time?" he asked.

"Yes," she said, slipping him a piece of paper as she gathered up her box and coffee cup. "Thank you for the coffee, Mr. Castle."

"Call me Rick," he said.

Kate smiled and left wordlessly, and Rick just looked down at the phone number she had left in his hand. Oh, yes. She was definitely being written into the next chapter of his book.


End file.
